MadCat seeks provocative and visionary films and videos directed or co-directed by women. Films can be of any length or genre and produced ANY year. MadCat is committed to showcasing work that challenges the use of sound and image and explores notions of visual story telling. All subjects/topics will be considered. Submission Fee: $10-30 sliding scale. Pay what you can afford. International entrants disregard the fee. For more details go to www.madcatfilmfestival.org or call 415 436-9523. Preview Formats: VHS or DVD. Exhibition Formats: 35mm, 16mm, Super8, Beta SP, Mini DV, VHS, DVD. All entries must include a self addressed stamped envelope for return of materials. Final Deadline: May 15, 2006. An entry form is attached to this email for your convenience!

Past filmmakers include: Nancy Andrews, Alice Guy Blaché, Germaine Dulac, Emily Hubley, Jennifer Reeves, Su Friedrich, Lynne Sachs, Jane Wong and so many more! MadCat 10 will take place this September around the San Francisco, Bay Area. Keep an eye out for details at www.madcatfilmfestival.org

MadCat is on tour now with 2 programs of short avant-garde films by women.

1) AMOK-IMATION - Wry, dark and painfully funny, these animated works from Sweden, Mexico, the Netherlands and the Philippines are not your typical Saturday morning cartoons. This program is available on Mini-dv.

2) MOOD ALTERATIONS - These alternately loving and disturbing 16mm portraits hail from Austria, France, Germany, Mexico and the US. Filmmakers use editing, optical printing and camera movement (or lack there of) to create an ethnographic study of Romania, a musical peek at a girl on the verge of puberty and a pulsating found footage bonanza among other stories. This program is available on 16mm.

To book the tour email us or go to our web site for more information www.madcatfilmfestival.org

Mad Mission

Founded in 1996 the MadCat Women’s International Film Festival (MadCat) is a highly acclaimed international festival that exhibits independent and experimental films and videos directed by women from around the globe. The Festival emphasizes work that is inventive and visionary. Our annual Festival takes place at select San Francisco and Berkeley venues throughout the month of September.

The Festival was founded to create a forum the highlights women artists. The Festival’s primary goal is to bring these works to a range of San Francisco, Bay Area venues and across the country to audiences who would not normally be exposed to this kind of work. MadCat exhibits films by women that challenge the use of sound and image and explore notions of visual storytelling.

A New Look at the Curatorial Process

MadCat has established a strong reputation for programming series of acute and insightful films audiences would be hard pressed to find anywhere else. MadCat sets itself apart from other women’s festivals by curating its programs thematically as opposed to looking for films solely about women’s issues. Thus, with each year comes a completely new set of films and topics. MadCat seeks to educate spectators about the art of cinema through programming that incorporates both experimental films and more accessible works. The Festival’s distinct curatorial approach allows audiences to make their own connections between films and aids them in developing a film vocabulary by the mere act of watching a program.

MadCat’s unique angle on programming often refreshes and surprises its audiences. MadCat allows viewers to look into the vast array of topics women film and videomakers are wrestling with and expand traditional notions of “women’s issues”. The audience will not sit back and wait for the images to wash over them nor for a simple narrative to tell its story. Whether the audience is watching a documentary, narrative, animation or experimental film they will be on the edge of their seats grappling and participating with the visual texts set before them. By providing a dedicated exhibition venue in the San Francisco, Bay Area, MadCat encourages women and girls to take creative control behind the camera, increasing visibility and opportunity for women in the arts.

“The MadCat Film Festival tests, expands, and evolves the traditional, politically motivated, 20th Century definition of ‘the women’s film festival.” Independent Film and Video Monthly
MadCat Women’s International Film Festival

639 Steiner Street
San Francisco, CA 94117 USA

Phone: 415 436-9523
Fax: 415 934-0642
info@madcatfilmfestival.org
www.madcatfilmfestival.org